What: What are your thoughts on the fact that the social work profession in the U.S. has been deemed to begin with COS, Jane Addams, and the Settlement Houses and not with Black mutual aid groups and, similarly, how they are left out of the roots of mutual aid (and social work)?
• So what: Why is it important for any community, or field of study/practice, to know its historical roots? How do the origins/roots of a thing impact its trajectory, where it goes, what it does, and its impact?
• Now what: How might social work and group work be different if we rooted our history (in this country) in the work of Black mutual aid groups? How can knowing the root of mutual aid inform the practice of the process of mutual aid in the groups we facilitate?
